Guest blog by Josh Karan below. Though I'm not as optimistic that parents will have any say in what happens if and when mayoral control lapses, the Parent Commission which was a part of in 2008 did have a rigorous analysis of what was wrong with mayoral control and how to improve upon it. We invited any parent or parent advocate to be part of our group, held panel discussions with experts on school governance and critical education issues, and deliberated for an entire year before coming up with our consensus recommendations. For those who would like to see what we proposed, you can check out our full report here. -- Leonie
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We have an
unexpected opportunity to influence how NYC schools are governed, which could
make them more engaging of and accountable to communities.
Since 2002
the granting of control of the schools to the Mayor by the NY State legislature
has required periodic re-authorization. Presently such granting of power
expires July 1, and there has been a deadlock between various factions as to
the terms for its reauthorization.
Therefore,
according to staff of one NY State Senator, the NYS legislature will be
convening a Special Session after July 4 to address the issue of NYC school
governance.
This has
panicked proponents of Mayoral Control, including the di Blasio administration,
and many others, who view Mayoral Control as responsible for great improvements
in educational outcomes. They are
seeking a multi-year, re-authorization, while Republicans and some Democrats,
want to link re-authorization to an expansion of Charter schools, and an audit
of how the school system has been spending its money.
Proponents
of Mayoral Control have argued that the alternative would be a return to
what they assert were corrupt, unrepresentative, local Community School Boards.
This impasse
allows some opportunity to affect the debate, perhaps resulting in the Special
Session granting only a short-term re-authorization, while we work to
re-invigorate the discussion about the role of parents and communities in the
formulation of the structure of decision making for public education, as well
as its goals.
The context
can be proposals that a group of us, calling ourselves The Parent Commission,
compiled in 2008, when then Mayor Michael Bloomberg first desired renewal of his
control over NYC schools.
At that
time, over many months, a group of 15-30 parent activists discussed
various proposals for democratic governance of NYC schools, and the mission
that should underlie the school system. It issued a series of recommendations
which again are pertinent.
They can be
viewed at: www.parentcommission.org.
Not everyone
on the Commission agreed with every proposal, but we came to a consensus, which
we offered as the basis for discussion about how our schools should function.
These
proposals are again timely. They offer an alternative to the binary
positing of opposites, whereby the only alternatives are seen as either
authoritarian Mayoral Control or the old corrupt Community School Boards.
We believed that pretending there were only two possibilities reflected a
failure of imagination in the public discourse, and its capture by those with a
point of view about public education that would not well serve the majority of
its students.
Anyone
wanting to be involved in talking to legislators about this, please contact me:
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A summary of
the Parent Commission proposals:
A) Central Governance
Structure
We recommend
a governance system distinguished by an educational partnership that includes
the Mayor, a Board of Education whose members will strive toward cohesion and
consensus, and new independent oversight agencies to verify financial and
academic outcomes, investigate corruption, and respond to parental complaints.
B) Restoration of Community School
Districts as meaningful entities
— whereby
CEC’s have an important role in choosing the District Superintendent, who in
consultation with the CEC and District Presidents Councils, and Community Board
will help develop the annual capital plan, the district’s class size reduction
plan, the Contract for Excellence spending, and the District Comprehensive Education
plan, and whereby CEC’s have the full authority under the law to approve school
siting, selection, restructuring, expansion, and reconfiguration of schools, as
well as the closing, opening and relocating of all traditional public and
charter schools in their districts.
C) Establish an
Education Constitution to Proclaim the Mission of the NYC
School System to provide the vision and mandates necessary to provide all
our city’s children with a truly comprehensive, public and democratic
education
Recognize
that more than governance must be addressed, because through a variety of
governance structures and chancellors over the last 40 years, little has
changed for the majority of students, who are primarily low-income children of
color. The Parent Commission sought an explicit and legally binding
statement of what education is intended to accomplish, to be embodied in a
Constitution for the New York City Public School System that would codify in
law a shared mission with core principles, primary goals, and a policy
framework that must be respected and upheld by whomever is governing the
system. Only in this way can our public servants be held to account for the
money, resources, programs and staff needed to provide educational excellence
for all. Some mandates might involve resources for facilities and support
staff and class size requirements, while others might involve educational
philosophy regarding the use of multiple forms of assessment; the necessity of
valuing diversity of ethnicity, race, and class; as well as the educational
importance of racial and economic integration of schools.
